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Overloud Dopamine
Gear Lust Web Site |
Go To The Music Connection "New Toys" Directory |
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| Overloud Dopamine 361 Mode |
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| Overloud Dopamine 180 Mode |
Overloud's Dopamine is interesting to me because it models an "old-school" processor trick for enhancing either already recorded tracks or new recordings. Back when noise reduction was required for tape recording--especially multi-track recordings, there was the Dolby-A noise reduction system that used an encode/decode process.
You would record through the A-361 encoder but you had to playback through the A-361 decoder to recover the audio's original fidelity and tone just without tape hiss and noise. As long as this entire system was correctly aligned, it all worked great. Dolby-B is a single-ended version used on consumer-level tape recorders; Teac's AN-180 Noise Reduction system was one of the popular choices for a standalone unit.
Overloud's Dopamine simulates both the Dolby A-361 1U single-channel units and the Dolby-B processor used by the Teac AN-180 units.
Probably by accident, a new mixing processing trick was born when an engineer played a recorded track without the decoder--un-decoded Dolby-A recording is called "stretched" and sounds bright with variable compression/expansion dynamic.
Dopamine simulates that effect and notably like the original noise reduction process, does not introduce the unpleasant artifacts and atonal harmonics generated by other audio exciters and enhancers. The encode-decode process of the old noise reduction units dynamically re-balances the existing harmonics naturally present in the original audio.
My first use for Dopamine was for an entire mix in Pro Tools. I found it like a mastering effect in this use but it also worked great on individual vocal and acoustic guitar tracks. Dopamine is a subtle and beautifying effect and that is why I love it. I mostly use the 361 mode but there are a many great presets to toggle through using either the 361 and 180 modes.
Presets with descriptive names like "Acoustic Air" for adding a kind of brilliance not really possible with an EQ are available for auditioning. I can remember using a Dolby-stretched acoustic guitar tape track and here it is again except I could adjust it more exactly to my needs.
At extreme knob settings (100% Wet and 0% Dry, full Comp), the 361 sounds just like the giant old gray Dolby units--super bright with dynamic distortion while the 180 is similar but with reduced low frequencies.
OverLoud's Dopamine sells for $129 as download and I like its subtle effect to add a special "something" to any audio. It's a keeper!
overloud.com/products/dopamine
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